Party in Ramallah

In keeping with sharing my tour of the middle east with you, the latest stop was Ramallah. We had a bit of a work party there with staff coming from Jenin, Hebron, Gaza and Jerusalem to join up with the staff in Ramallah at a great outdoor restaurant on the side of a hill overlooking a valley. It was quite beautiful. To get there we drove past Yasser Arafat's compound and the place where he is buried. It was a lovely festive party with people singing and dancing, which was so nice. In most places I have been in the last few years here in this region the vibrant arabic culture has been weighed down with the heaviness of war and oppression. Last night's journey, despite the checkpoints along the way was finally happy and hopeful.

Saturday at the Western Wall

This weekend I stayed in Jerusalem and explored the old city a bit more. First I went down to the Western Wall (aka the wailing wall- as seen in the picture) and sat around and comtemplated it a bit- the women's prayer section is much smaller than the men's section but I sat there for a while and watched as people prayed to this treasured and holy stone wall of so many thousands of years, putting their written prayers on little bits of paper into the cracks of the wall. I was tempted to put in a prayer that they stop killing people in the name of it... but decided that might be a bit blasphemous. After that I meandered back through the Arab quarter. El Wad street was a lot quieter this time than last time I was there when I had accidently stumbled into an area where a rally of green flags was going on you could barely move. I had gotten out of there pretty quickly then, but this weekend it was nice and quiet and relaxed. I made my way up some streets (not really knowing where I was going) and suddenly among all the tourist shops was a group of Orthodox Jews praying. By the signs it appears this was the place where a young jewish student was killed last week. The end of this street brought me out at Jaffa Gate, and then I wandered back down through the very quiet streets of the Christian quarter until I came out again at the bustling, happy marketplace at Damascus Gate with loads of noise and colour and music. All in all a fascinating little journey for a Saturday afternoon walk.

Trip to Jenin

Went to Jenin yesterday to visit our office there. Didn't get a chance to take any photos except this one. The drive was very interesting. We went up through Israel and crossed into the West Bank at the very north. We drove along the "wall" which has been landscaped over on the Israeli side so it looks nice, but on the other side is just massive slabs of concrete. On the way back we drove down through the Jordan Valley. The way down is between beautiful dry folding hills, until you get into the valley with date palms, past Jericho and the dead sea, and then climb back up the hills to Jerusalem.

Weekend in Bethlehem

Hello, all is reasonably quiet here so I went to Bethlehem for the weekend, mostly for the swimming pool at the Intercontinental there.... but while in town I also popped down the church of the Nativity to touch the place where Jesus was born (as seen in the picture- marked by the star). Can now tick that off (having already ticked off the place where he died and walked the stations of the cross, now just have to go to the place he ascended to heaven, multiplied the loaves and fishes etc etc. Oh so much to do here in the Holy Land). Will be in Jerusalem for about another month, ciao for now, megs.

Megs in Jerusalem

Hi everyone,

Here I am in Jerusalem. The picture above shows the Western Wall and the Dome of the Rock. I am here working until about late September. For the time being I will be based here rather than in Gaza as was originally planned.

It is very very hot, but other than that all is quiet!

bye for now,
Megs